Vending Machines
Sitemap VENDING MACHINES * See also Vita-Chamber * See also Rapture_Economy * See also Gatherers_Garden Uinvent.jpg Circusz.jpg GatheGard.jpg PPM2.jpg Genenenenebank.jpg|concept FortuneMachine.jpg GeneBanky.jpg ADD Security Shutdown(fine paying system), Eve Dispenser, Medi-Station , gumball machine and the amusement Slotmachines jukeboxes, and The zardoz fortune telling thingeer --- --- --- Understand that the Vending Machines in BioShock perform useful access to different game mechanics elements (Plasmid/Tonic adjustments/purchase/upgrades, weapon ammo resupply and enhancements, Player medical repairs. It being a Shooter Game, they have to operate largely instantaneous -- When for any semi-realistic operation many would have to be more complicated and take up far more time time (similar to instant weapon changing, splasmid swuitching, administering medi-paks, etc...) The MMORPG's more realistic/detailed Playstyle would have many Vending Machines be much more involved and NOT so instant. --- --- --- Empty Vending Machines : In BioShock there supposedly were the machines placed by rather 'mercenary' manufacturers (Ooh - Evil 'Capitalists') who apparently did not have a problem with selling to both sides/everyone (ie- Ammo...) . With a terrorist civil war and anarchy, as time went on and Rapture's Economy and Order took a rather major downturn, production of much of the common items would have been drastically reduced or (particularly more sophisticated ones) even stopped completely. Eventually there would be little restocking. SO Rapture apparently wasn't quite the 'basket case' in BS1 times as the writers wanted to imply. Otherwise, People would also run out of money, or the money itself would soon have little value (there would be nothing anyone was willing to sell that helped their own survival or could be bartered). People would hoard important items. Less Order meant more machines would be broken into. We saw at least one machine (Fontaine Futuristics which when a hacking failed killed the Splicer, and a Booby-trapped one in Hephaestus, and numerous damaged/destroyed ones in many places). Goods Stockpiles would dwindle with few (if any) replacements. Factions (like Sofia Lamb's) might be able to keep making various items, but just with ONE unobtainable material or component THEN some item can no longer be produced (and it is usually very hard for workable substitutes to be found). By the later (MMORPG) period, machines in no-mans-land would likely all be empty, or even taken for spare parts/components/materials. In organized Faction territory, Vending Machines would only have basic items (and even then most supplies would be manually controlled - a resource used by the BOSS). The money such machines accepted likely would have been changed (too much Old money floating around). Machines in sealed-off areas might still retain their original inventories, but these would have been 'sought out' over the years. --- --- --- SO, Who Keeps Filling The Vending Machines ? ' : Most amazing thing of all - that in Rapture there is ANYTHING left in any of the vending machines -- if things are as bad as the game implies ('Failtopia' - remember...). If everything is so disrupted and people so desperate, then they'd have broken in and stolen EVERYTHING that wasn't already bought out. Those things then wouldn't be replaced (money became useless, etc...). For BS2, after years of further erosion of abilities and facilities (and incompetence of the Crazy Lady), most of the stuff just couldn't be made anymore anyway (though substituting appropriate things would have been fun -- "WHAT ? $15 for just ONE Rock ?? That's ridiculous !!!"... "Get Some More Money Buddy!!!"). FOR Columbia, it was supposed to have not quite gotten to 'Fail' yet, but that place has very weird stuff in the machines, and even stranger Pricing. Besides the belief that such Soulless machines, taking away jobs of 'the godly', could ONLY be the work of the Devil -- and Every One Of Them would be smashed and inoperable, no matter what Comstock said ( or HE would soon have found himself "Smashed and Inoperable"). Iconoclasm WOULD/SHOULD have been a better story for Infinite BS's Columbia ( ''Ludditism was one of the original concept ideas for a Failtopia-esque game environment -- maybe they should have stuck with it. ). --- --- --- '''The Fix The Pays : You find the shell of a Vending Machine (of some flavor), perhaps with a few pieces which have not been destroyed or stolen. Useless ? Not if you can find and/or fabricate all the missing parts and repair the rest. Then you will have a machine to place somewhere where it has convenience like a central place in New Rapture where specialty items you get ahold of can be sold (and will make it useful enough for other Citizens (and Players) to buy stuff from it). No doubt upgrades, like better Tampering/Theft Security or other modifications, will allow the machine to do its job, and make you lots of PROFITS. Restocking your Vending Machine out at some Border area will become someone's Mission, as will obtaining/making useful items to stock it with. Your 'Team' NPCs can be tasked with more mundane servicing in 'Safe' areas. --- --- --- Circus of Values has a 'Hack Tool' Advertised (picture) on its Front : A bit odd that a tool used for committing crimes is advertised 'for sale' (even in Rapture). Is it unlikely these machines would have their advertisements redone AFTER the disorder of the Civil War has started, when 'hacking' of the opposition's machines might be more acceptable (or Unhack your own). Its possible that the 'Hack tool' is actually a common repair item used in ordinary repairs of ones own machines (nice would have had us do that (repairs) to some broken machines or locks or somesuch, INSTEAD of always breaking someone else's security measures). Hmmm, have some older machines to be found broken with older 'skins' on them showing how the items being sold have changed (hand scrawled sign text on recently (still) active ones). Faction Period vended goods (typical) : * Dried Fish * Potatoes * Wad-O-Kelp (was this to eat or to use as TP ?) * Crude Matches * Arrowheads * Bottled Water (+ RRV) * Seaweed cup-o-noodles * Gum (actually awful tasting RTV rubber) * Hardtack Biscuits * Single Bullets/Shells (alot harder to come by these days) * Kerosene (for Lanterns) * Sander Cohen brand Handywipes * 'We Luv Rapture' Smiley-face pins (that needle is adequate for many minor surgery application) --- --- --- Those Weapon Upgrade Stations ''' : Largely a Contrived Game Expediency, its still effectively a 'Machine' which the player can make use of. This Upgrade Station idea filled-in/added a Game activity/goal roll, so its BS1/BS2 operation needs to be discounted a little when used for a more realistic MMORPG Rapture. Additional upgrades from those seen in the Solo games (perhaps some of the stranger/weirder ones were 'name only', and their effects were somewhat different -- who knows what promises people would 'swallow' when they were desperate - also what would 'Jack' know, was he supposed to be some expert on the subject ?). Operates on a limited set of 'standard' weapons (and even then limited changes made with standard accessories). A real weapon upgrade station also cleans guns (including ultrasonic cleaner while-u-wait). Seriously -- a 'magnetized' drill that deflects bullets, when simple lead bullets aren't magnetic ... (and BTW a magnet PULLS steel/iron TOWARDS itself ???) Really those Stations shouldn't have limited you to one upgrade in their general use (and should have cost you money), but for BS1/BS2 purposes, being a desirable to search-out/find level goal was an added exploration aspect. The MMORPG would have a much wider upgrade system so any such stations are only basic (assuming they aren't broken/destroyed/looted and have any of the accessory parts left in them. Fontaine built them ? Why? Would he want the majority of Rapture armed against him ? (One of the stupidities of the game is that the writers assumed most Citizens would be against Ryan>) Fontaine/Atlas could still arm/upgrade his minions without needing these publicly-accessible machines. So again its a 'game' feature that might be a bit differently handled in the MMORPG. --- --- --- '''Power To The People Machines (Weapons Upgrades) : Seriously, Why would Fontaine want Ordinary Citizens to be empowered, when very many would Join Ryan in acting to Destroy him or his later Atlas character ??? Perhaps these machines were only located in the destabilized areas where Atlas was active -- The parts YOU (as Jack) get trotted through to keep you safe, rather than other parts of Rapture where Citizens had kept control with Ryan's help. Magical whizzbang conversion machines semi-realistically might be able to provide more minor mods (automatic-ing standard guns, larger magazines, better sights, stock/grip mods, longer barrels, clean and lube, and other NON-Magical modifications - largely dealing with standard add-on parts). Wouldn't be as quick either (its convenient for a game where Players don't like tedious waits). But then YOU ARE already ADAM-addled by the time you see your first one of these upgrade stations, and so your sense of 'time' might be rather warped when you DO your first Weapons Upgrade mod. - Those 'Power To The People' Upgrades : This would have been for a set of Standard Weapons -- To have 'bolt on' upgrades of the various kinds in effectively a self-serve vending machine. Some weapons, like the Chemical Thrower and Grenade Launcher, would then be not quite as 'kludged' together as sometimes implied -- ex- the cute "we used vegetable cans to build these" look they had in the game. Funny and more realistic would be : Every additional Mod to a weapon made it more likely to malfunction/jam/fail and thus force the player to switch quickly to a different weapon (more interesting gameplay for the MMORPG then too ...) --- --- --- * Prime Health Unit First Aid station (insta-healing station) --- * Security Bot Cutoff Station (pay fine to stop the Flybots from killing you for your --- Indirect/non-operating Machines In-Game : ''' Note- Most of these In-Game didn't require payment, but in Ryan's Rapture should have... * Bubblegum machines * Drill Fuel * Epstein the Swami - you paid a dollar for the 'amusement * Gatherers Gardens - may have operated using ADAM as payment (excess of that needed for the Plasmid/Tonic/Slot) - ones we saw apparently were setup by Ryan Industries after the takeover of FF. * Gene Banks - may have absorbed some amount of ADAM out of the customers system as 'payment' * Lockers - like ones seen in Ryan Amusements * Door Locks (that you can 'bribe' ????) * Newspaper Racks * OxyFill tation * Payphones * Pay Toilets * Pay Turnstile for Metro (seen in Welcome Center) * Peephole Viewing in Sirens Alley * Pay Elevator (in Buried at Sea ??) * Pneumo Kiosks - Remote On-demand delivery would be an *extra* pay service * Power to the People - eventually would have been charged for Service * Safes (that you can 'bribe' ????) * Scenic Binoculars - view paid for * U-Invent machines - may have operated by require more materials than were actually used to produce the resulting items * Vita-Chamber - Rejuvenation/Resurrection booth --- --- --- '''Gene Banks a Convenient Service : Gene Banks were discussed in Rapture to not only alter what Plasmids and Tonics the player could have, but were originally meant for citizens to cosmetically enhance their own physical aesthetics, such as their body size, how they look, etc. We've seen website showing what has happened to unfortunate Celebrities who overused things like BoTox... No doubt there were people of a similar sort in Rapture. MMORPG Players characters no longer are Splicers, but the game's Role Playing' element allows playing out the life Splicers lived (Heh - every Player can have a 'Splicer persona' to organize and run (if they wish) to give the other side of the real "Rapture Experience"...) You get (as Player) to select your 'look' at the game start (a product of your DNA - no real 'mods' as they proved temporary, minus a little subsequent 'plastic surgery'....) You are returned to your unmodified DNA state as part of 'the Cure'. This is a typical thing for MMORPGs, to offer customization to Players when creating a character/avatar... --- --- --- Hack Attack : It was Kinda odd to have Vending Machine selling a Hacking Tool which can be used to cheat the same companies vending machines. Maybe if they were only made in the U-Make-It machines ?? --- --- --- MMORPG - Return of the Pneumo Trading Machine Idea : A "Buy N Sell", BioShock game concept picture showed a Pneumo tube fashioned with various equipment, wiring, and parts, such as a microphone, antenna, and projector (and a reference to "Survivors" whom you traded with). MMORPG Players traveling all the way back to some specific City Limits 'store' (or set of them) constantly can be bothersome, (gamewise) so you could have some remote trading/buying/selling available. There could be : * Access to the equivalent of the typical MMORPG Auction House (posting items and bids) * Ordering from stores remotely (fixed priced over the phone and delivered to nearest working Pneumo). * Selling to a Clearing House with its fixed (or supply adjusted) prices (transport trundles around to make pickups/deliveries in 'safe' areas). * Dealers who have fixed Prices for mundane items (obviously ones that fit in a Pneumo Canisters and for which the Postage is NOT too much for the Value of the item). * Your NPC Team to store/retrieve items and go do buying and selling of mundane stuff on Autopilot (using their developed NPC skill to get better deals ...), and doing pickups/delivery/hauling (particularly bulk stuff). Relations/contracts with various business as a supplier... * Direct Pneumo 'mailing' between Players (Private deals) * There probably will be some Remote Outposts with stores/vending machines, and where the Pneumo has reached (been repaired), which would shorten routine (tedious) hauling distances (probably with some 'Fees' involved to pay for the effort that went into the repairs - they are business ventures after all). No doubt there would be Player 'Missions' to do some work like this. --- --- --- Slot Oriented Plasmid/Tonic Genetics (and the "Gene Bank") ' : Its all for gameplay purposes -- when you ''come down to it. But they did have the two tier (manual select of equipped Plasmids, and the Gene Bank changing between the slots) as a limitation. When menus (like the Plasmid use selector) get too long, they are a bother to use, and you did eventually acquire sufficient slots such that you could do plenty of different things when you wanted to (without having to reconfigure yourself with the Gene Bank machine constantly). I rarely even used the GeneBank for normal playing, and mostly just for exploring what the other Plasmids/Tonics did (and in those playthrus was even then just buying different ones and initially equipping them to see what they did). -- Splicers (if an individual even had ANY) Plasmids, : They had very few (compared to Jack or Delta or Atlas). I could speculate that the earlier versions of Rapture Plasmids did NOT allow the genetically upgraded user to change them out --- That would require a much more complex biological mechanism/technology (the Slots ... and then changeable slots - done via Gene Bank manipulation). With earlier produced versions, the more you had, the more UNSTABLE you were (and Splicers we saw in the game were the ones who hadn't yet genetically imploded from having too many at once). Later, Ryan would have wanted the Plasmids to NOT fry the Splicers so much (SERIOUSLY, He wouldn't want MORE insane people tearing up his City and murdering the remaining Citizens). So when he got charge of Fontaine Futuristics, he would probably have had the genetic engineers work on having more stability, resulting in the Slot Mechanism, and then a method to disable their effects (Which Delta and Jack and Atlas could use - though we probably wouldn't have seen what long term effects might still be going to happen for them - Each of those game's time spans were really only days at the most(?) ). ADAM also may have been rare® by the time of the Player's BioShock playing (BS1), and it just may have been too hard to amass enough of it for more than a few Plasmids (ontop of all the Tonics you could also want). --- '''Gene Bankery Element Facilitating Game Play : "Gene Bank" machine : A game mechanism to facilitate changing between the Plasmids and Tonics the Player accumulated as the game went on. Otherwise for the bottle version application, or via some machine as the Gatherers Garden, a bottle you would have to get out of a machine (buy from shop ?), and then either use it immediately-on-purchase/on-finding, OR have some extra game inventory complexity to hold it til you wanted its use. IT WAS Simpler game-wise to have a menu-oriented machine to do this function with a separate purposed/dedicated-interface, and the Player (WHEN you wanted to change your ADAM config) now had a minor quest/activity required to do so (find/get-to a Gene Bank). I found I hardly ever used it (and mostly only when I was experimenting on Replays). --- --- --- U-Invent U-Make-It Components : Alcohol, battery, brass tube, enzyme sample, glue, empty hypo, kerosene, rubber hose, screw, shell casing, distilled water, chlorophyll solution, RJ-34 switches, nitroglycerine, ionic gel ... No doubt the MMORPG would be adding all kinds of other similar salvage goodies to the components. Since most of the companies aren't around any more to make new items, and the spares stockpiles are getting depleted (and old things decay over time), we can still make use of the techniques those U-Invent machine used (and some Players could fix up (repair) old U-Invent/U-Make-It machines still lying about out there... You would want to haul it back to a 'safe' location and add a coin slot to charge for its use. --- --- --- Burial At Sea DLC - Blind Copying Without A Thought : DLC regurgitated rubbish -- They just reused the Infinite BS Kinetoscope mechanisms to push Backstory, NO MATTER THAT IT WAS COMPLETELY WRONG FOR 30-50 years later. The whole concept of "Ryan's Propaganda" via these machines is asinine. Remember the TV sets used to link events in BioShock (You were locked into a cutscene just the same or trapped in a small room with a discombobulated face glaring at You) ?? AT least the ones in Columbia you (the inhabitants) would 'USE OR ELSE' in that Nutty Cultish Police State. But it makes absolutely no Fricken sense to be in Rapture. - A Porn-O-Matic Mini-Theater with its 'entertainment material' (SELECT FROM EIGHT DIFFERENT SHOWS !!!) changed weekly would make sense, but that wouldn't really work to push the Backstory to the Player. --- --- --- . . . Epstein The Swami - the Machine-God : One group of Splicers the MMORPG adventurer might encounter were a splinter group of the old 'Rapture Family' who worship an Epstein The Swami machine as their new god. Its answers are mysterious and have been seen to foretell fates. One group found a second such machine to worship and placate (the Anti-Epstein), and a 'religious' schism happened that left many of both groups dead, until one side (the 'good Epstein' sect) managed to destroy the other's "False god". . . . . . --- --- --- "Sell Your Gravy To The Circus of Values" ... ??? : ' Uh, last I looked, you only BUY from these machines, and you don't spend *ADAM* which might likely have been referred to as the real 'Gravy' (good idea for MMORPG to use that as a slang term). It doesn't then really even work as a euphemism for THESE machines. Perhaps at one time in the game's design all the Currency was to be ADAM ? (Weapon vs Plasmid/Tonic dichotomy was needed for Players 'leveling', resulting in two 'currencies' being used in-game) Maybe, if it was a smart 'Pawnshop Machine' : Could be named with some adequate 'P' starting name -- "Poirot's Portable Pawnshop" ... ? Maybe like those absurd machines in Infinite BS that magically take Bullion and Jewelry in place of CASH (and able to take thousands of dollars in Coins too - for those absurdly priced gimmicky Player upgrades.) --- --- --- '''Oxyfill Station (More Contemplations) : ' Implies commercial use (like a gas station...)?? Who would be outside (does NOT look automatc enough to fill a Submarine without a "gas station attendant"..) A frequentlt used operation like this might actually be worth developing an anthromorphic robot mechanism, with an operator at a safe inside location (a booth). Managing a diver to serve outside is alot of work/trouble (and overhead cost), though use of a maintenance cyborg could work -- if manning a busy enough station warranted it "OOOMMMMARRGGGHHHHH HOMMMMM" (Check your oil, sir?) The Oxy-fill stations we've seen dont look properly placed to service submarines - area is too closed in around them. Subs would be logical customers as well as Divers and Equipment (which uses compressed gas). The city construction used alot more mini-subs (to run massive automated construction machinery of many types) than what the 'Memorial Museum' portrayed. So constant routine use would have many such non-commercial re-fill stations (at minimum to 'top off' onboard supplies to maintain a sufficient safety margin). Automated billing (probably thru a membership) - not likely a 'coin slot' would be employed for the station mechanisms. --- --- --- '''Entertainment Machines - Pinball Machines in Rapture : In 1942, when New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia sent his gendarmes to seize the city's pinball machines. New York did not relegalize pinball until 1976. (Note - pinball machines were often employed as a type of GAMBLING Machine - not just the entertainment they later were used for.) So in response to this remembered government tyranny, several businessmen in Rapture took the opportunity to express their creativity and freedom by creating all manner of pinball games with and without gambling features and various other gimmicks. Lots of opportunities for Mini Games (I saw pinball computer games more than 30 years ago, so such should run on a handheld easily). Creation Tools for pinball games would be available to Players wanting to try their hand at creating such Assets. There would be all the usual pinball machine features, along with ability to insert artworks/sound-effects/place specialty 'themed' gimmicks into the Pinball games. - Doogey and Dipshit : Rapture's Answer to "Dimwit & Duke" -- The Pinball Game : --- --- --- Additional New Vendor Machines for New Rapture : The Research Machine - tapping into the files maintained at Minervas Den and City Hall. Coin slot to pay your way to knowledge. Clean Water machines -- plumbing still isn't what it was and people don't all want to pay or have the opportunity for the hookups and repairs needed to bring their 'base' residences upto non-fishy-tasting water. Bottled drinking water (and convenient refill stations). TV 'News' machines ('Need To Know' Theater being a-bit-odd version of the Kinetiscope mechanism used in Infinite ) -- TV still doesnt give in-depth info (and resolution isn't HD or Color) as compared to newspapers or even Newsreels ?? Newspaper Machines with Displays of changing headlines dealing with current events and happenings in the City (to encourage buying a paper..). Can double to show emergency announcements. Air-Tite Service Kiosk (essentially the same as Pneumo-ing loot back to your 'Team' base) but that is a good idea for handling the classic 'Bank' problem in so many MMORPGs (at least for the small valuable stuff as "It ain't for free"). Still the system is limited so you wont find it working too far out from New Rapture (might save you walking all the way back to your base). The standard Circus of Values/El Bandito type machines (now under new management), likely have more varied mix of new city-made products. Porta-Potties - due to transportation difficulties usually are located in Trolley and AE Train stations which allow easy servicing. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ' IN COLUMBIA ' --- --- --- Vend Me *This* Comstockman !!! ''' : "The earliest known reference to a vending machine is in the work of Hero of Alexandria, a first-century engineer and mathematician. His machine accepted a coin and then dispensed holy water (likely for a Temple). When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened a valve which let some water flow out. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counterweight snapped the lever up and turned off the valve..." (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vending_machine) Sounds like something Father Comstock would have endorsed ... Never can have enough Holy Water used (Or Coins -- he IS the Great 'Profit' after all). - Stolen Technology : It would have been amusing (imaginative) to see a Circus of Values or El Ammo Bandito machine (or even a lonely Rapture Tribune machine) in Columbia, since they seem to have stolen so many (some) other things ((Sorry gamewriters, you can't 'make em' after just 'seeing them', as you seem to ignorantly/stupidly believe)). Have them, at least, in Fink's place (Fink Mfg), where they would have them in pieces (?) -- Attempting to reverse-engineer them (and not doing so well - there actually would be a hole YARD full of such attempts, and messy corpses fried by boobytraps). --- --- --- '''Columbia's Vending Machines - A Mindless/Lazy Copying Of BioShock Rapture : Fink's Vending machines don't make alot of sense (especially those dim scenes of them being produced on an assembly line). Vending Machines in that age were few, and worked only in very limited ways (postcards/gum), and the ones in the game also would have a way of pissing off shop owners they competed with (assuming there's anything that might sell in that fashion besides postcards/gum in the original 1893 Exhibition/Exposition). In Infinite BS, you should have seen at least every other one SMASHED (scenes suitable for that 'Machine vs Luddite' theme the writers abandoned). Vending Machines make perfect vulnerable targets for Vox also (pilfering as covert Vox actions most suitable in the Police State Columbia was). Unfortunately, the game makers decided they had to copy the BioShock game mechanisms, so they cloned the more modern pattern/designs of the later period quite-complex Vending Machines, when they were quite inappropriate and illogical for that era with that kind of functionality. REAL ones in that era were extremely simple. The machines Selling 'Vigors' for what was actually yearly salaries-- THAT too helped make it even more stupidly contrived. (Stupider yet was them retaining that clunky-weird Columbia style interface in BaSx Rapture -- Levine must've run out of time/money/caring by that point). --- --- --- Clodumbia Minuteman Machine ''' : Good idea to have a vending machine where any Vox or other rebel/criminal could buy (or break into and steal) guns and ammunition. If any had existed BEFORE the Vox were organized, they should all have been removed AFTER. But such missing logical storyline considerations don't seem important alongside the game bigger illogics. That IS avoiding reality : That in 1912 you would NOT have ANY such workable 'vending' machine selling more than postcards/stamps/gum/packaged-cigarettes - Simple mechanisms able to be made by the technical Caveman Fink and his 1893 thinking/understandings. Why not a computer 'Replicator' thingee 'Tear'-stolen from 2300AD which would be far more likely to be possible IF a logical universe ruled the game. '''IT WAS Simple Lazily Copying a game element from Rapture BioShock - Into a setting's context where it really DID NOT FIT. - Consider the 'mentally primitive' reactionaries Levine implies all Americans were in 1900 - to be consistent with HIS story , THE PEOPLE IN COLUMBIA would have been afraid to go near any such machines and would have condemned Comstock for WITCHCRAFT and burned him. The setting was too sloppy and chaotic/contradictory in the themes they glombed together for Infinite BS. --- --- --- --- --- . .